November 11, 2012

The apostasy of an Apple fanboy: Time to begin moving to a new place

There are cracks in Apple's façade, the result of faint subsurface ripples in the substructure that do not bode well for the company in the years to come, as Jobs' legacy products gradually make their way into the world next year and 2014 and then disappear, leaving the denizens of One Infinite Loop to their own devices, as it were.

To that end, thinking like an anesthesiologist as I tend to do, I've begun buying and using the products of other companies so that I'm not hung out to dry without an alternative.

Google Chrome on my new MacBook Pro with Retina Display has been a revelation — much better than my default Camino and leagues ahead of Safari.

Thus, it seems to me that with Google's new Chromebook soon to be available in a 3G version natively running Chrome, it might just be an interesting alternative to Apple's platform.

Both the Air and my new MacBook Pro have one fatal flaw: neither will work with my Virgin Mobile Broadband-To-Go flash stick — unlike my 2004 PowerBook G4 which, with its native 32-bit kernel, plays just fine with BB2Go.

Thus, if you're out of WiFi range, you've got a beautiful and expensive paperweight.

The Chromebook with integrated 3G will obviate the need for the BB2Go ($50/month with no contract) and likely be a whole lot snappier than the almost unbearably slow 2004 machine running it.

The final straw is that it has become apparent that TypePad, my blog host, will never, ever create an iPad app that is anything more than a bare bones placeholder allowing little functionality.

For $329.99 I think the Chromebook is worth a flyer and I'm taking one.

Star Trek Spock Oven Mitt — Logical Vulcan Chef Accessory

Three Stooges' Greatest Hits: Curly Yodeling

As with the Popeye cartoon of a couple days ago, seeing this old clip in high-definition on a MacBook Pro with Retina Display while listening via a Braven 650 speaker is like seeing it for the very first time.